BALTIMORE–Catholic support of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is the topic of a day-long conference entitled Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach, Saturday, February 19, 2011, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., at the Hilton Pikesville Hotel, 1726 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore, Maryland. The conference is sponsored by New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based national Catholic organization which works for justice and equality for lesbian and gay people.
“This conference day is designed for Catholics interested in learning how faithful members of their church are supporting marriage equality,” said Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director of New Ways Ministry. “This day will highlight the fact that Catholic lay people have a different approach to the question of marriage equality than their bishops do.?
The conference will feature two main speakers: Heather Mizeur, a Maryland State Delegate and a champion of marriage equality in the state; and Morgan Meneses-Sheets, the Executive Director of Equality Maryland, the state’s lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender civil rights organization. They will speak from both personal (Ms. Mizeur is a lesbian Catholic who married her partner in California; Ms. Meneses-Sheets, a lesbian Catholic, is raising a daughter with her partner) and public perspectives about marriage equality and the current legislation being discussed in Annapolis this year.
According to a November 2009 poll conducted by Greenberg, Quinlan, and Rossner, Catholics in Maryland support marriage equality legislation. Some important statistics from this survey illustrate this claim:
i) 49% of Maryland Catholics favor legislative action that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, while 42% are opposed. Compared to all Maryland voters, Catholics are more supportive of marriage equality. Of all Maryland voters, 47% support legalizing marriage between same-gender couples while 44% oppose it.
ii) Geographically, Maryland?s largest population centers have large numbers of Catholics who favor marriage equality legislation. In Baltimore and Baltimore County, 52% of Catholics are in favor versus 39% who oppose. In Prince George?s County, close to 50% of Catholics are in favor of marriage equality.
To register for the conference or to receive more information, contact New Ways Ministry, (301) 277-5674, info@newwaysministry.org,www.NewWaysMinistry.org.